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The Cubs and Cardinals will try it again Thursday, and with the rainout, the Cubs now have to win just one game instead of two to have their second winning series this year against their rivals from St. Louis.
That'd be pretty cool, wouldn't it? It seems that the Cubs play the Cardinals tough no matter how good or bad either team is. We've talked about how poorly the Cubs have played against the Reds and Pirates the last few years, but the Cubs are 18-26 against the Cardinals since 2012. That's not great, but it's surely better than you might expect from a 90+ plus loss team against a perennial playoff team.
The Cardinals look like they're missing something so far this year. They've been floundering around .500 most of the year and the Cubs are 4-4 against them. It'd be nice to take this series.
This weather forecast doesn't look great, with a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms this afternoon. Having already had one rainout and with just one more Cubs visit to St. Louis this year, they will likely do whatever they can to get this one in.
Cubs lineup:
Bonifacio CF, Kalish RF, Rizzo 1B, Castro SS, Valbuena 2B, Lake LF, Olt 3B, Baker C, Hammel P
When writing Junior Lake's name above Mike Olt's on a scorecard, it reads, top to bottom, "Lake Olt." I envision Lake Olt as being one of those picturesque lakes somewhere in the Swiss Alps.
Cardinals lineup:
Carpenter 3B, Peralta SS, Holliday LF, Adams 1B, Molina C, Craig RF, Bourjos CF, Ellis 2B, Wacha P
Same lineup the Cardinals had posted for last night before the rainout.
Today's Starting Pitchers |
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You read these pitcher previews last night, if you saw the preview thread before the rainout was called. But since the pitcher matchup is simply carried over to today, you get to read them again!
Jason Hammel had a decent start against the Cardinals May 4 at Wrigley Field, but it wasn't quite enough as St. Louis defeated the Cubs 5-4. Hammel has thrown at least six innings in all seven of his starts (and at least seven in five of them), and has been the Cubs' second-most-consistent starter this year. A long outing would help tonight, after the Cubs went through most of the pen last night.
Michael Wacha held the Cubs to two runs in six innings May 3 at Wrigley Field, but Cubs pitchers were better, shutting out the Cardinals. A repeat of that would be nice.
Today's game is on CSN Chicago.
Here is the complete MLB.com Mediacenter for today.
Baseball-reference.com game preview
Please visit our SB Nation Cardinals site Viva el Birdos.
For 2014, we are going to have the same game-thread routine as 2013. Here's how it works.
You'll find the game preview -- like this one -- posting as the first link in the StoryStream™, which will then contain all the overflow threads and the recap. The recap will also be on the front page as a separate post; once I post a game recap, the stream for each game will be retitled "Cubs vs. (Team) (Day of Week) Game Threads" so you can go back and find every thread related to that particular game.
In general, game previews will post two hours before game time. Exception: for day games after night games, that will usually be 90 minutes.
You will also be able to find the First Pitch Thread and all the overflow threads in the box marked "Chicago Cubs Game Threads" at the bottom of the front page (you can also find them in this section link). They will also appear in this StoryStream™. As I've done for each regular-season game for several years now, we'll have the First Pitch thread at five minutes before game time (moved up from actual game time per your requests), then an overflow one hour, two hours and 2:45 after game time.
Discuss amongst yourselves.